Alright, so it's 2Am on a Tuesday, what am I doing? If it was last year, it probably meant that I was back from a late night at the library (it closes at 1 am) , had meant to go to sleep but was distracted by all the people in the kitchen of my house (in sophmore year I lived in student interest house devoted to student activism) and went to eat chips and hummus with them and discuss classes, friends, relationships, etc. If it was this year I'd probably gotten distracted from sleep by a conversation with my roommate about some strang facet of international news (he loves to find humorous news about obscure parts of the world), talking with the girl across the hall about our Muslims in Modernity reading, or playing guitar hero with my roommate.
The campus does have a bit of a work hard party hard atmosphere to it. People generally withhold drinking/partying until the weekends since there's usually too much work before then. Carleton is definitely not a dry campus and while alchohol is the drug of choice, there's a good amount of pot use and a very small harder drug scene as well as a good number of kids who don't drink (I'd say about 10{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} don't drink at all and another 20-30{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} only drink very small amounts infrequently). I didn't drink almost all of my freshman year and never had trouble finding things to do. There's a play up almost any weekend, lots of dance parties, student movies, the cookie house (stocked with cookie ingredients to bake your own 24/7), and other happenings. Honestly, I still do a lot of these actvities just with alchohol added. I'd say the basic weekend plan, especially once you've been here a while, is to just hang out with your friends on a weekend, maybe go to a show, throw a party, play some videogames (I'm a big fan of resurrecting old super nintendo games!). Still, there are lots of cool events to look forward to like Spring Concert, mid winter ball, screw your roommate (a giant campus-wide blind date), or the 24 hour show (a play written and rehearsed in 24 hours, then performed). There are of course lots of other traditions and often the best ones are the ones just made up that you get to be in for the first time (like the silent dance party, where everyone downloads the same playlist and dances to it together on the quiet floor of the library). Most trips off campus involve going out for dinner, coffee, or beer though one shouldn't underestimate the fun of doing a road trip to the movie theater a few towns away (you'd be surprised how much more enjoyable a movie is when it takes effort to get to it). The Twin Cities aren't that far away, though it helps to know someone with a car if you want to go. I've really only been up there for school events or as part of a class, though these have allowed me to see some of the great museums and theater in Minneapolis/St. Paul.